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Not Applicable.
This invention relates to cutting boards used for food preparation, specifically to a cutting board that incorporates a scale suitable for weighing food.
When vending, preparing, or otherwise handling food, it is often desirable or necessary to know with some exactitude the amount of food being handled. For instance, U.S. Pat. Nos. D304,277 and D372,176 display ornamental designs for cutting boards with physical features that allow for measuring food volume.
When preparing food for consumption, a specific amount of food is often desired. Recipes often will call for a specific weight amount of food. Diet plans often prescribe a specific weight amount of a particular food. As well, dieters often track consumption of particular food items, or food in general.
Those in the food industry often serve a precise amount of food. For example, a restaurant may weigh meat or fish before or after cooking. The weight of bread dough, such as for a pizza, may be weighed before being cooked.
At present, one interested in the weight of a food must guess at the weight based upon learning what the desired weight looks like. Then, the food must be transferred to a separate scale to weigh. If the food is not close enough to the desired amount, it must be returned to the cutting board.
The food is not always simple to transfer between a cutting surface and a scale. For instance, cooked meat may drip and cooked fish is difficult to prevent from breaking into pieces.
For these reasons, it is desirable to have a cutting board or surface with which the food can be weighed simply and quickly without having to move the food to a separate scale. It is also desirable that the food can be returned to a cutting surface simply and quickly.
Accordingly, one object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved cutting board having separate areas for cutting food and for weighing food, so that large portions can be placed on the cutting surface and cut into smaller pieces, and then the smaller pieces can be slid onto the weighing area without removing either portion from the cutting board.
Another object of the present invention is to provide separate areas for cutting and weighing such that cutting is not done on the weighing area as the mechanisms and calibration for weighing food may be damaged if cutting is done on an active scale.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a weight readout for the scale.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a selector switch allowing a user to choose the units of measurement in which the weight is displayed.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a selector switch allowing a user to choose the orientation in which the weight readout displays the measured weight.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a control panel having one or more selector switches that allow a user to input information such as, specifying certain parameters to be measured or inputting information regarding the type of food being measured.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a selector switch allowing a user to chose whether the calories or weight is displayed.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a selector switch which allows user input to identify the food placed on the scale so that a microprocessor disposed in the cutting board can calculate and display the calories based upon the weight of the particular food.
These and other objects and advantages will become apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the following disclosure and accompanying drawings.
In accordance with the invention, generally stated, a cutting board having a substantially flat cutting surface and a scale disposed in a cavity formed in the cutting board for weighing food is disclosed. The scale has a weighing surface on which food is placed to measure the weight of the food thereon. The weighing surface preferably is substantially coplanar with the cutting surface. Food can be cut on the cutting surface, and then transferred to the active weighing area to determine the weight of the food. The cutting surface can be constructed from a variety of suitable materials such as, for example, metal, polymer or any other material conventionally used as a cutting surface. Wood can be used for the cutting surface as well, though governmental health codes for professional food service often prohibit the use of porous material such as wood in the preparation of food.
In the preferred embodiment, the top surface of the cutting board further includes a visual display for indicating the weight of the object or food placed on the scale. The dimensions of the cutting area, weighing area, and display in relation to each other may be varied depending on the size of the overall unit and the purposes to which it is to serve.
The preferred embodiment also includes a control panel having input device that allow a user to input information such as, for example, specifying certain parameters to be measured or displayed. The input device of the control panel preferably includes one or more selector switches. In one embodiment, selector switches are provided that allow the user to 1) select the units of weight measurement desired for the readout, 2) select whether the readout displays weight or calories, 3) identify a particular food so that calories associated with that food can be determined, and 4) specify the orientation of the readout to the user. In order for the cutting board to be adaptable for either a left-handed user or a right-handed user, as the ease and comfort of the cutting board may be different for left or right-handed people, the orientation of the readout may be inverted so the user may choose on which side is most comfortable to be located. Preferably, the control panel and associated selector switches are substantially co-planar with the top surface of the cutting board, though the control panel can be on the side or bottom.
Data processing circuitry is in electrical communication with the input device or switch to process information input by the user and generated by the scale. The circuitry preferably is microprocessor based, and controls data displayed on the visual display.
Other objects and features will be apparent and in part pointed out hereinafter.